Leveraging presence service system and method for distributed web service delivery and deployment

ABSTRACT

A method is described herein for optimizing the delivery and deployment of web services to consumers by providing presence information (presence attributes) in addition to business/technical information (if needed) about different web service providers to the consumers so they can select a web service provider based on various important factors such as load, price, location, etc. . . of the web service. An enhanced web service registry and a presence system are also described herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to a method for optimizing the delivery and deployment of web services to consumers by providing presence information (presence attributes) in addition to business/technical information (if needed) about different web service providers to the consumers so they can select a web service provider based on various important factors such as load, price, location, etc. . . of the web service.

2. Description of Related Art

The following abbreviations are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to in the ensuing description of the prior art and the different embodiments of the present invention.

-   AOL American On-Line -   HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol -   IETF Internet Engineering Task Force -   IM Instant Messaging -   MSN Microsoft Network -   SIMPLE SIP for IM and Presence Leveraging Extensions -   SIP Session Initiation Protocol -   SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol -   UBR UDDI Business Registry -   UDDI Universal Description, Discovery and Integration -   URL Uniform Resource Locator -   XML Extensible Markup Language -   WSDL Web Service Description Language

Referring to FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART), there is illustrated a block diagram that is used to help explain how a consumer 100 can obtain business/technical information 102 about different web service providers 104 (one shown) from a traditional service registry 106 (e.g., traditional UDDI service registry 106). As shown, the consumer 100 uses a computer 108 (PDA, laptop etc. . . ) with software loaded therein that can communicate via WDSL with the UDDI service registry 106. And, the web service provider 104 uses equipment 110 (computer, server etc. . . ) with software loaded therein that can communicate via WDSL with the UDDI service registry 106. The consumer 100, the web service provider 104 and the UDDI service registry 106 communicate with one another via the Internet 112.

In operation, the web service provider 104 registers their company/services with the UDDI service registry 106. In particular, the web service provider 104 can register with the UDDI service registry 106 and publicly list information about their products, services and engagement guidelines. This information is referred to herein as business/technical information 102. Then, the consumer 100 sends a specific search request 114 to the UDDI service registry 106 to obtain business/technical information 102 about relevant web service providers 104. For example, the consumer 100 can send a search request 114 to obtain the business/technical information 102 about web service providers 104 that provide tax planning services. To send the search request 114, the consumer 100 would first need to access the UDDI service registry 106. The consumer 100 can do this today by using anyone of the following URLS:

IBM's UBR Node: http://uddi.ibm.com

Microsoft's UBR Node: http://uddi.microsoft.com

SAP's UBR Node: http://uddi.sap.com

NTT's UBR Node: http://uddi.ntt.com

The UDDI Service Registry 106 is Formed by these Distributed UBR Nodes.

In response to receiving the search request 114, the UDDI service registry 106 sends the business/technical information 102 associated with relevant web service provider(s) 104 to the consumer 100. The consumer 100 selects one of the web service providers 104 and interacts directly thereafter with that web service provider 104. Alternatively, the consumer 100 can select and interact with multiple web service providers 104. FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART) is a diagram that illustrates the situation where multiple consumers 100 a, 100 b . . . 100 n are interacting with one or more web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n. As shown, the consumers 100 a, 100 b . . . 100n can communicate via SOAP over HTTP with their web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n. At this point in time, the consumers 100 a, 100 b . . . 100 n and the web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n no longer need to utilize the UDDI service registry 106.

It is well known that the web services of these web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n may become noticeably slow and may even overwhelm high-end web servers under heavy load conditions. To address this problem, the web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n can try to optimize their service delivery by employing load balancing techniques on their server farm. In addition, the web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n can replicate their web services at various servers located in different geographical locations in an attempt to handle heavy load conditions. As can be seen, the current solution used to improve the web service performance is performed by only the web service providers 104 a, 104 b . . . 104 n. It would be desirable if the consumer 100 a, 100 b . . . 100 ncould also take part in improving the performance of the web services. This need and other needs are addressed by the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention includes a method for optimizing the delivery and deployment of web services to consumers by providing presence information (presence attributes) in addition to business/technical information (if needed) about different web service providers to the consumers so they can select a web service provider based on various important factors such as load, price, location, etc. . . of the web service. In one embodiment, a service registry (e.g., UDDI service registry) is enhanced with a presence functionality so it can provide business/technical information and presence information (e.g., load, price, location of servers) about different web service providers to consumers so they can select a web service provider. In another embodiment, a presence system is used to provide the presence information (e.g., load, price, location of servers) about different web service providers to consumers while a service registry (e.g., UDDI service registry) is used to provide the business/technical information about different web service providers to the consumers so they can select a web service provider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGS. 1 and 2 (PRIOR ART) are two block diagrams which are used to help describe how a traditional service registry (e.g., traditional UDDI service registry) can provide business/technical information about different web service providers to consumers so they can select and interact with one or more web service providers;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an enhanced service registry (e.g., enhanced UDDI service registry) that has a presence functionality so it can provide presence information in addition to business/technical information about different web service providers to consumers so they can select and interact with one or more web service providers in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a presence system and a traditional service registry (e.g., traditional UDDI service registry) that respectively provides presence information and business/technical information about different web service providers to consumers so they can select and interact with one or more web service providers in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention deals with a method for enabling a consumer to choose a web service based in part on the state of the web service provider which is indicated to the consumer as presence attributes. In this way, the consumer can help the web service provider to improve the delivery and deployment of the web service. This is a marked improvement over the prior art in which only the web service provider could improve the delivery and deployment of the web service. The present invention is enabled by using a presence based application. Presence is defined as notification of events that facilitate communication. Currently, presence technology is being widely deployed in the environment of instant messaging (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, etc.). And, presence technology is being developed as a core communication enabler by companies like Alcatel, Cisco, Avaya and others.

For a detailed discussion about the basics of presence technology, reference is made to the following documents:

-   -   Jack Jachner et at. “Rich Presence: A New User Communications         Experience” Technology White Paper, 8 pages, copyrighted 1st         quarter 2005.     -   J. Rosenberg, “A Data Model for presence”,         draft-ietf-simple-data-model-05 (work in progress), Sep. 22,         2005.     -   Rosenberg, J. “A presence Event package for the Session         initiation protocol (SIP)”, RFC 3856, August 2004.     -   H. Shulzerine et al. “RPID: Rich Presence Extensions to the         presence Information Data Format (PIDF)”,         draft-ietf-simple-rpid-08, (work in progress), Jul. 16, 2005.     -   Rosenberg, J. “Presence Authorization Rules”,         draft-ietf-simple-presence-rules-03 (work in progress), Jul. 20,         2005.         The Contents of these Documents are Incorporated by Reference         herein.

A basic idea of the present invention is for the web service providers to publish their dynamic presence information and for the web service consumers to obtain and use this presence information. The published dynamic presence information can include attributes like (for example):

-   Availability of the web service provider: whether the web service is     currently up and providing the requested web service. -   Current load of servers of the web service providers. -   Performance indicators such as waiting time. -   For mobile entities that provide web services, the entities     location. -   Prices. -   Etc.

The web service consumers use the presence information to choose a web service based on important factors such as load, price, location, etc. . . which makes the web service more efficient and user-centric. Implementing the present invention requires leveraging the presence services technology infrastructure. Two embodiments that can be used to leverage the presence services technology infrastructure in accordance with the present invention are described below with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a block diagram of an enhanced service registry 300 (e.g., enhanced UDDI service registry 300) in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The enhanced UDDI service registry 300 (which is a distributed mechanism) has a presence functionality 302 so it can upon receiving a search request 304 from any of the consumers 306 a, 306 b . . . 306 n effectively provide them presence information 308 and business/technical information 310 about the relevant web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n. The consumers 306 a, 360 b . . . 306 n can then choose the web service of one or more of the web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n based on important factors such as load, price, location etc. . .

In particular, the consumer 306 a (for example) uses a computer 314 (PDA, laptop etc. . . ) with software loaded therein that can communicate via WDSL with the enhanced UDDI service registry 300. And, the web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n use equipment 316 (computer, server etc. . . ) with software loaded therein that can communicate via WDSL with the enhanced UDDI service registry 300. The consumers 306 a, 306 b . . . 306 n, the web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n and the enhanced UDDI service registry 300 communicate with one another via the Internet 318.

Each web service provider 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n registers their company/services with the enhanced UDDI service registry 300. In particular, each web service provider 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n can register with the enhanced UDDI service registry 300 and publicly list information about their products, services and engagement guidelines. This information is referred to herein as business/technical information 310. And, each web service provider 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n publishes their presence information 308 to the presence functionality 302 located within the enhanced UDDI service registry 300. Again, the published dynamic presence information can include attributes like (for example):

-   Availability of the web service provider: whether the web service is     currently up and providing the requested web service. -   Current load of servers of the web service providers. -   Performance indicators such as waiting time. -   For mobile entities that provide web services, the entities     location. -   Prices. -   Etc.

Then, the consumer 306 a (for example) sends a specific search request 304 to the enhanced UDDI service registry 300 to obtain presence information 308 and business/technical information 310 about the relevant web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n. For example, the consumer 306 a can send a search request 304 to obtain presence information 308 and business/technical information 310 about web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n that provide tax planning services. The consumer 306 a before being able to send the search request 304 would first need to access the enhanced UDDI service registry 300. For example, the consumer 306 a can do this by using anyone of the following URLS:

-   IBM's UBR Node: http://uddi.ibm.com -   Microsoft's UBR Node: http://uddi.microsoft.com -   SAP's UBR Node: http://uddi.sap.com -   NTT's UBR Node: http://uddi.ntt.com

The consumer 306 a then reviews the presence information 308 and business/technical information 310 and selects one of the web service providers 312 a (for example). At this point in time, the consumer 306 a and the selected web service provider 312 a can interact directly with one another and they no longer need to utilize the enhance UDDI service registry 300 (e.g., see FIG. 2).

This embodiment of the present invention has several advantages and disadvantages some of which are provided below:

Advantages

-   Web service providers 312 a, 312 b . . . 312 n and web service     consumers 306 a, 306 b . . . 306 n do not need to implement a     presence service. They can simply use the enhanced UDDI service     registry 300. -   The enhanced UDDI service registry 300 can have a functionality that     supports a query from consumers 306 a, 306 b . . . 306 n: “give the     lightly loaded provider”or “give the nearest provider”. In this way,     the consumers 306 a, 306 b . . . 306 n do not need to review all of     the presence information 308 and business/technical information 310.     Instead, the enhanced UDDI service registry 300 can effectively     select a web service provider 312 a (for example) for customer 306 a     (for example).     Disadvantages -   The enhanced UDDI service registry 300 may become overloaded as     presence information 308 may change frequently. The enhanced UDDI     service registry 300 may become a hotspot. -   It may be difficult to maintain the consistency of the presence     information 308 since the enhanced UDDI service registry 300 is made     up of distributed UBR nodes. -   The enhanced UDDI service registry 300 may use a presence     functionality 302 that does not have all of the capabilities and     features of a traditional presence system.

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a block diagram of a presence system 400 that works in conjunction with a traditional service registry 402 (e.g., traditional UDDI service registry 402) to provide consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n both presence information 406 and business/technical information 408 about one or more web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. The presence system 400 (shown as presence service infrastructure 400) includes a presence server 412 and a rules engine 414 (optional). The presence server 412 collects presence information 406 about one or more states of the web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n and publishes at least a portion of that presence information 406 to one or more of the consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n. In this embodiment, the consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n may need to subscribe with the presence server 412 before they can receive the presence information 404 of selected web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. Again, the published dynamic presence information can include attributes like (for example):

-   Availability of the web service provider: whether the web service is     currently up and providing the requested web service. -   Current load of servers of the web service providers. -   Performance indicators such as waiting time. -   For mobile entities that provide web services, the entities     location. -   Prices. -   Etc.

The traditional UDDI service registry 402 upon receiving a search request 416 from any of the consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n provides them the business/technical information 408 about the relevant web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. The consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n can review the presence information 406 and business/technical information 408 and then select one or more of the web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. In an alternative embodiment, the traditional UDDI service registry 402 is not used because the consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n already know the relevant web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. In this case, the consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n would obtain only the presence information 406 and then select one or more of the web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n.

If the presence system 400 also uses the rules engine 414, then it would be possible to select which presence information 406 if any should be made available to certain customers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n. To accomplish this, the rules engine 414 would aggregate the presence information 406 collected from web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n and analyze the collected presence information 406 in view of stored preference rules/policies 418. The preference rules/policies 418 function to dictate which if any of presence information 406 should be sent to particular customers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n. The web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n can establish their own preference rules/policies 418. For example, the rules engine 414 can use the preference rules/policies 418 to learn that a particular web service provider's presence information 406 should not be published to customer 404 b (for example) because this customer 404 b has not paid the service provider's bill. In addition, the rules engine 414 can use the preference rules/policies 418 to output aggregated/filtered presence information 406 that is adapted to (for example):

-   The identity of the particular customer 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n and     the relationship between particular customer 404 a, 404 b . . . 404     n and the web service provider 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. -   The privacy preferences of the web service provider 410 a, 410 b . .     . 410 n. -   The policies of the web service provider 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. -   Security considerations. -   Etc.

In operation, the consumer 404 a (for example) uses a computer 420 (PDA, laptop etc. . . ) with software loaded therein that can communicate via WDSL with the traditional UDDI service registry 402. And, the web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n use equipment 420 (computer, server etc. . . ) with software loaded therein that can communicate via WDSL with the traditional UDDI service registry 402. The consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n, the web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n and the traditional UDDI service registry 402 communicate with one another via the Internet 422.

Each web service provider 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n registers their company/services with the traditional UDDI service registry 402. In particular, each web service provider 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n can register with the traditional UDDI service registry 402 and publicly list information about their products, services and engagement guidelines. And, each web service provider 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n can publish their presence information 406 (see above list) to the presence system 400. In one version, the consumer 404 a (for example) can access the traditional UDDI service registry 402 (as discussed above) and send a specific search request 416 to the traditional UDDI service registry 402 to obtain business/technical information 408 about the relevant web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. For example, the consumer 404 a can send a search request 416 to obtain business/technical information 408 about web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n that provide tax planning services. In another version, the consumer 404 a (for example) would already know the relevant web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n and would not need to interact with the traditional UDDI service registry 402 instead they would just interact with the presence system 400. In both versions, the consumer 404 a if they have not already done so may need to subscribe with the presence system 400 to obtain the presence information 406 about the relevant web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. However, before the consumer 404 a can subscribe with the presence system 400, they may need to obtain the address of the presence system 400. For instance, this address can be a well-known address like the well-known URLS for the UBR nodes. Or, this address can be part of the business/technical information 408 that is provided by the traditional UDDI service registry 402 to the consumer 404 a in response to their specific query 416.

The consumer 404 a then reviews the presence information 406 and business/technical information 408 (if needed) and selects one or more of the web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n. At this point in time, the consumer 404 a and the selected web service provider 410 a (for example) can interact directly with one another and no longer need to utilize the presence system 400 and the traditional UDDI service registry 402 (e.g., see FIG. 2).

This embodiment of the present invention has several advantages and disadvantages some of which are provided below:

Advantages

-   Leveraging a presence service infrastructure 400 that is independent     from the UDDI service registry 402 implies an easier deployment. As     mentioned earlier, several communication service companies such as     Alcatel, Nortel, and Nokia are building presence service     infrastructures 400. -   Reduces the possibility of Hotspots. -   The ideas developed by IETF SIMPLE workgroup to distribute Presence     over SIP can be leveraged. In this case, the presence server 412     would be a SIP/SIMPLE presence server 412. -   The ideas developed by JABBER to distribute Presence over XML can be     leveraged. In this case, the presence server 412 would be a JABBER     presence server 412.     Disadvantages -   The web service providers 410 a, 410 b . . . 410 n and web service     consumers 404 a, 404 b . . . 404 n need to implement the presence     service infrastructure 400.

Following are some additional features, advantages and uses of the present invention:

-   A consumer can watch the presence information on different servers     used by a web service provider and choose the best server which has     the shortest response time. For example, a consumer can select the     best server associated with a financial planning web service     provider. -   Automatic load balancing as consumers normally choose lightly loaded     systems. -   The present invention can be used to distribute consumers among     co-operating service providers based on a given agreed upon     criteria. -   The present invention can provide presence information about     competing web service providers such as information related to price     and response time that can be used to the advantage of a consumer. -   It should be appreciated that for clarity the description provided     herein about the traditional UDDI service registry and the presence     service infrastructure/functionality omits certain details and     components that are well known in the industry and are not necessary     to understand the present invention.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying Drawings and described in the foregoing Detailed Description, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims. 

1. A method for delivering and deploying a web service to a consumer, said method comprising the steps of: providing business/technical information about a plurality of web service providers to said consumer; and providing presence information about said web service providers to said consumer, wherein said consumer reviews the business/technical information and the presence information and selects one of the web service providers.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: an enhanced service registry which has a presence functionality provides the business/technical information and the presence information to the consumer.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein: a service registry provides the business/technical information to the consumer; and a presence system provides the presence information to the consumer.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said presence information includes information about at least one of the following states: availability of each web service provider; current load on servers of each web service provider; performance indicator of each web service provider; location of each web service provider; and/or prices for services associated with each web service provider.
 5. An enhanced web service registry, comprising: a node capable of providing business/technical information about a plurality of web service providers to a consumer; and said node includes a presence functionality and is capable of providing presence information about said web service providers to said consumer, wherein said consumer reviews the business/technical information and the presence information and selects one of the web service providers.
 6. The enhanced web service registry of claim 5, wherein said node is a distributed node.
 7. The enhanced web service registry of claim 5, wherein said presence information is associated with at least one of the following states: availability of each web service provider; current load on servers of each web service provider; performance indicator of each web service provider; location of each web service provider; and/or prices for services associated with each web service provider.
 8. A presence system, comprising: a presence server that collects presence information about one or more states of a plurality of web service providers, and then publishes at least a portion of that presence information to a consumer.
 9. The presence system of claim 8, further comprising: a rules engine that applies preference rules/policies to the collected presence information to determine which if any of the collected presence information is to be published to said consumer.
 10. The presence system of claim 9, wherein each web service provider establishes their own preference rules/policies.
 11. The presence system of claim 8, wherein said consumer subscribes with said presence server to receive the presence information of the web service providers.
 12. The presence system of claim 8, wherein said presence information includes information about at least one of the following states: availability of each web service provider; current load on servers of each web service provider; performance indicator of each web service provider; location of each web service provider; and/or prices for services associated with each web service provider.
 13. The presence system of claim 8, wherein said presence server is a SIP/SIMPLE presence server.
 14. The presence system of claim 8, wherein said presence server is a JABBER presence server.
 15. The presence system of claim 8, wherein said consumer also obtains business/technical information about the web service providers from a web service registry and uses the business/technical information and the presence information to help select one of the web service provider.
 16. The presence system of claim 15, wherein said web service registry is a UDDI web service registry. 